The present invention generally relates to the field of communications services and, more particularly, to user interfaces for communications services.
A wide variety of communications services are available for users. For example, a single user may have a home phone, work phone, and mobile phone. In addition, the user may also use devices such as PC's, PDA's, and pagers for data communications, such as e-mail and instant messaging.
As communications services develop they offer more functionality and options. As a result, they are becoming more complex to use and manage. For example, a person could use a home phone, cellphone, work phone, e-mail, work e-mail and the like as communications services for different purposes or at different times. In addition, a number of phones and computers could be included in a home or office, thereby providing access to those communications services from different locations in the home or office. Different addresses or identifications could be associated with each of these phones and/or computers or other user input/output devices that may be used in connection with the communications services.
Each of the services and/or devices will typically have its own associated set of features and settings. Managing all these options may be so complicated and annoying for a user, that users may forego taking full advantage of all the features available to them. As such, they may perceive the provided services as less valuable and less desirable. They may also fail to add new premium services associated with the services because of a perceived inability to take advantage of those premium services. Therefore, the ability to market communications services may be adversely affected.